W. Wald

For other uses, see Wald.

"My name is Wald. My boss, Watto, he asked me to do a number of things in addition to my regular daily chores."

―Wald, to a spacer^[5]

W. Wald was a male Rodian who owned Wald's Parts after Watto passed the business to him on Tatooine and was a childhood friend of Anakin Skywalker when both were young enslaved workers. Wald spoke Huttese.

Biography

Childhood

Born in 38 BBY,^[1] Wald was a friend of Anakin Skywalker in their childhood years. He lived on Tatooine with his family, which had moved to Mos Espa only shortly before the Invasion of Naboo, and helped Anakin as he built a podracer.^[3] Wald was known as a petty thief and vandal, and graffiti proclaiming Watto to be a "dirty old bird" was attributed to him. Wald always shared his illicit earnings with his friends, and his friendship with Anakin Skywalker was strong.^[1]

Adult life

"I'm afraid you will have to talk to Watto if you need something. I have too much to do...yes, far too much to do."

―Wald, to a spacer^[5]

In the years following Anakin's departure, Wald remained close friends with Kitster Banai and Anakin's mother, Shmi. Shmi gave Wald Anakin’s tools and he took a job working in Watto's salvage yard, but never matched Anakin's skills in repairing old hardware. Shmi also gave Wald a swoop bike design that Anakin left in his room. With Kitster help Wald manage to built Anakin's bike design and manage win his freedom but Wald admitted it wasn't fast as a podracer, but still pretty fast.^[4]

After the Battle of Yavin, Wald was often overburdened with jobs in addition to the normal chores while working for Watto. For example, when there was a problem with large Tatooine mynocks slipping into Watto's junkyard at night to eat the power cables, Watto told Wald to solve the problem. Fortunately for Wald, a traveler who was looking for a missing droid part agreed to help Wald and went to the location just outside of Mos Espa where the mynocks roamed, thinning out the population drastically. The traveler agreed to do two more jobs for Wald. A gang called the Laser Flits had ambushed a delivery of swoop parts for one of Wald and Watto's customers and stolen ten swoop parts. The traveler went to the Laser Flits' headquarters and retrieved the parts, killing at least ten gang members. The other job was a simple delivery job. Some spare parts were to be delivered to a Qord D'Baelor customer waiting in Mos Espa Starport. Having completed the jobs, the traveler left. Wald appreciated the benevolence of the traveler, whom he ended up considering a friend.^[5]

When Watto retired, he turned over the salvage shop's rights to Wald. He renamed the shop Wald's Parts and continued to do a meager business during the early years of the New Republic. Wald had encounter a stranger who asked him of Anakin Skywalker. Unknown to Wald, the person was Luke Skywalker, the son of his old friend Anakin Skywalker.^[6] When Kitster stole the Killik Twilight moss painting, Wald helped him escape from Jergo. Unknown to anyone, Kitster stole Wald's swoop to get to the Arch Canyon to find a disguised couple, a Devaronian and Twi'lek. With Kitster's wife Tamora, Wald then later provided information to Leia Organa Solo on where Kitster had fled with the moss painting. Wald told Han Solo the swoop bike, Kister took was design by his best friend Anakin Skywalker. Leia, however, was quietly infuriated that he refused to believe Anakin Skywalker had grown up to become Darth Vader, unable in his mind to reconcile the joyous young child he had known with the monster of the dark side. Wald was also unaware of his return to Tatooine and the actions he took in attempting to rescue his mother.^[4]

Skills and abilities

Wald had little combat experience. When fighting, his special move was a tumble roll at the enemy's feet.^[2]

Equipment

Wald had a bag of marbles, which he used as a weapon.^[2]

Behind the scenes

Wald was played by Warwick Davis,^[3] who also played Wicket W. Warrick in Return of the Jedi,^[7] as well as Weazel in The Phantom Menace^[3] and various other characters in the series.

In a deleted scene Greedo accuses Anakin Skywalker of cheating in the Boonta Eve Classic pod race which resulted in Anakin attacking Greedo until being stopped by Qui-Gon Jinn.^[8] Following the altercation, Wald reminds Greedo not to keep up this kind of behavior or he will meet a bad end which he eventually does 32 years later.^[9] Star Wars Journal: Anakin Skywalker erroneously claims that Wald himself was the Rodian who got in a fight with Anakin, despite the two of them being friends.